War, pestilence, natural disasters

Although we usually treat telework
as a means for coping with everyday business problems it often becomes
a key tool for crisis management.

Two recent examples illustrate the situation: SARS and the war in Iraq.
SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) burst upon the world stage late
in March 2003 with the revelation that this new pneumonia-like disease
was a serious potential killer. Probably originating in mainland China,
the disease spread to Hong Kong and, via air transport of infected individuals,
to the rest of the world. Although (so far) not a massive killer like
influenza, SARS provoked Hong Kong into closing schools and, you guessed
it, promoting teleworking as a means of continuing business as usual while
working from home. As one example, The Wall Street Journal, in
a front page article on Monday, May 12th 2004, described Ms. Liu of Beijing.
Ms. Liu "spends almost all of her time working from home with computer
and telephone, leaving only for short walks." Ms. Liu works for a
Danish company. For more on the possibilities of a bird flu pandemic click
here.

The war in Iraq also has produced a new set of teleworkers: the command
staff of US operations. General Tommy Franks oversees the conduct of
the coalition
forces from a base in Qatar via videoconferencing and other telecommunications
technologies, according to press reports. Although the US armed forces
have been using teleworking since at least the mid-1960s, judging by
my personal experience, this is one of the few times when it has been
publicly noted.

This recent recognition of the ability to telework follows a series of
prior experiences where some form of disaster induces people to stay at
or near home while still getting their work done. Two of the programs in
which JALA has been involved serve as examples.

In 1989 the Loma Prieta earthquake,
centered near Santa Cruz, California, caused massive destruction in the
San Francisco bay area. Among the affected organizations was the California
Public Utilities Commission, headquartered in downtown San Francisco. The
PUC was participating in the California
Telecommuting Project and had several
telecommuters. Although the PUC headquarters were shut down for more
than a week after the earthquake the telecommuters kept right on working
from
their homes. As a consequence, the Governor of California issued an executive
order requiring all state agencies to include telecommuting in their disaster
preparedness plans.

Just five years later the 1994 earthquake in the Los Angeles area caused
widespread disruption of commuting patterns by the failure of several bridges
and freeway sections. Thousands of Californians were cut off from their
jobs essentially instantly. Yet the 1994 and 1989 earthquakes shared a common
phenomenon: although the roads were disrupted for months, the phone
lines were only out for a few minutes or hours. The inability of
many of their employees to get to their usual workplaces convinced
thousands of companies and government organizations to try telecommuting.
Many, if
not most, of them have continued that practice. Yet most were not properly
prepared for telework and encountered difficulties in both management and
technology. Some, but far from all, stopped their teleworking options after
the roads were repaired.

The moral of all these examples is: use telework as a standard, everyday
business option; you never know when you'll really need it.

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Last modified:
Monday September 26, 2011.